This grant application requests support for the EPITHELIAL DIFFERENTIATION AND KERATINIZATION Gordon Research Conference to be held July 18-23, 1999 at Tilton School, NH. Funds are requested to support registration, lodging, and travel expenses of the invited speakers and chairpersons. Partial support is also requested for poster presenters selected to give short platform talks, and to assist several qualified foreign scientists who otherwise could not attend. Applicants will be accepted based on the quality of their research in areas related to this conference, their ability to contribute to the discussion, and the likelihood that their research productivity and creativity will be enhanced by participation. This will be the 11th Gordon Conference on Epithelial Differentiation and Keratinization, which has been held every other year since 1979. The conference has successfully attracted and helped to develop scientists from many disciplines engaged in basic and clinically applied research in epidermal biology. Remarkable progress has been made in understanding this important tissue for its own sake and as a model for investigating many questions of general scientific interest, in cell and molecular biology, development, and genetics. The 1999 program includes topics of traditional interest to this conference and new ones that reflect the continuing intersection of new scientific fields with epidermal and epithelial biology. The sessions represented by 27 outstanding speakers and chairpersons are as follows: 1. Transcriptional regulators in epithelia 2. Lessons from Drosophila 3. Internal epithelia 4. The cornified envelope 5. Hair, nails and teeth 6. Control of epithelial growth and differentiation